1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to microreactors having reaction chambers causing chemical reactions using materials. This invention also relates to substance production methods for producing substances by use of microreactors.
This application claims priority on Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-208306, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various types of structures have been developed with respect to microreactors having reaction chambers causing biochemical reactions using materials. The typical type of the conventionally-known microreactor comprises an injection port, an exhaust port, and a channel, in which etching is performed on a silicon substrate so as to process a reaction chamber, wherein the microreactor is sealed in an air-tight manner by using a heat-resisting glass, for example. This microreactor is designed such that cells are divided in response to specific functions therefor so as to perform a plurality of biochemical reactions in parallel. In addition, a temperature adjusting device such as a temperature adjuster is applied to a part of the silicon substrate as necessary. This is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H10-337173 (see pages 3–4, and FIG. 3 in particular).
Another type of the microreactor comprises a plurality of chambers and fine reaction channels, wherein the prescribed liquid is selectively delivered from the chamber(s) by use of a pump (or pumps) and is sent into the fine reaction channels, thus causing reaction with the other liquid given from the other channel(s). In this microreactor, the fine reaction channel provides reaction phases and solvent phases, which are alternatively arranged. That is, the solvent phase is intervened between the two reaction phases, thus allowing a small amount of reaction solution to be extracted in response to different conditions. Herein, a temperature adjusting device can be arranged in the fine reaction channel as necessary. For example, it is possible to provide a Peltier element as a cooling device, which acts as the temperature adjusting device. This is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-340753 (see pages 2–3, and FIG. 1 in particular), for example.
In the conventionally known microreactor as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H10-337173, a temperature control device for a reaction cell is formed as a part of a silicon substrate; that is, it is not designed to produce a temperature gradient in the overall area of the microreactor. In addition, the other microreactor as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-340753 is designed to use a heating device or a cooling device as necessary in order to produce a substance therein, wherein it is very difficult to produce a temperature gradient.
That is, the conventionally known microreactors have difficulties in producing new substances through reactions using materials in response to temperature differences, which are caused to occur upon realization of a temperature gradient (for the sake of temperature control) in channels allowing materials to pass therethrough.
In the above, reactions are performed using temperature differences in the following manners.    (i) It is possible to use differences of boiling points between different materials.    (ii) It is possible to apply state changes on materials by use of temperature differences applied to materials.    (iii) It is possible to use differences of solubility of materials due to temperature differences applied to materials.